Hafeez Contractor

Hafeez Contractor has impacted the skyline of much of the built environment of metropolitan India, with an unmistakable identifying stamp. He set up practice in 1982 with a dedication to design excellence, efficient delivery and sophistication in building technology. Today, Hafeez Contractor heads the largest architectural firm in India, with over 550 team members, comprising of architects, urban/town planners, interior designers, landscape artists, civil engineers, CAD operators and 3D and graphic designers. The firm has to its credit over 2500 clients and 7.2 billion square foot of ongoing projects in 100 cities and 5 countries. Hafeez Contractor was born in Mumbai and studied at Boy's Town Boarding School, Nasik. He completed his architectural studies from the Academy of Architecture in Mumbai and graduated from Columbia University, New York, in 1976-77. However, his career began far earlier, in 1968 when he worked as apprentice with Ar. T. Khareghat, a firm he became an associate partner with, in 1977. Between 1977 and 1980 Ar. Contractor has been visiting faculty at the Academy of Architecture, Mumbai.

He is the winner of over 75 National and International Awards for excellence in contributions to architecture including CWAB Architect of the Year (2006 to 2013), A+D Hall of Fame for the Decade Award. He has twice has been included in India Today's Most Powerful Indians List in last decade and has won innumerable awards for best residential, commercial, educational and hospitality projects across India. Ar. Contractor's passion is to create structures that exemplify functional and aesthetic qualities and has shaped and changed the urban built landscape of the country through provocative, unpredictable and revolutionary ideas while executing a wide range of architectural projects. His work spans the gamut of possibilities of the constructed space: bungalows, residential developments, hospitals, hotels, corporate offices, banking and financial institutions, commercial complexes, shopping malls, educational institutions, recreational and sports facilities, townships, airports, railway stations, urban planning, civic redevelopment and infrastructure projects and low cost housing. The impressive chart of work that Ar Contractor catalogs, includes some of the tallest structures on the subcontinent, The Imperial Towers, Mumbai; one of the tallest residential buildings in the world, 23 Marina, Dubai; has moderenized the two busiest airports of the country, Mumbai and New Delhi; and one of the best cricket stadiums of the world, DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai. Apart from commercial construction projects, he has invested in researching and conceptualizing ways in which to positively impact the urban environment with proposals for public spaces and slum redevelopment. These include The Western Waterfront Development, a scheme that attempts to rejuvenate the urban environment by creating large, open, green spaces in Mumbai and streamlining the city's transport needs, and is finally being realized as West Line Freeway Project .

Hafeez Contractor has also worked on solutions for the issue of slums plaguing Mumbai, along with officials of the urban development department and senior authorities, by introducing a Slum Rehabilitation Scheme. He is currently empanelled and working with the housing boards of several Indian states including Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and others. Hafeez Contractor was a member of the Bombay Heritage Committee and the New Delhi Lutyens Bungalow Zone Review Committee. His impressive practice, which has spanned over three and a half decades, is based on a core philosophy. He asserts, Architecture should be honest and must respond to the spirit of the time characterized by distinct ideas, disparate missions, contrasting convictions and divergent preferences. It is this enduring belief that has brought me to where I am today. A strong advocate of the vertical growth of cities, judicious land use and the need for sustainable, compact cities to maintain a perfect harmony between increasing population and limited land resources, Ar. Contractor has also worked with a leading Gurgaon-based developer to influence government that high-rise development has more advantages in terms of quality life versus intense low-rise structures dotting the landscape.

Ar. Contractor is passionate about social housing and his dream is to provide a house for every Indian.